Linguo Grammar
The grammar of Linguo is highly inflected, allowing for a fairly flexible word order. Linguo also makes use of a number of affixes, allowing each root word to corespond to several other words. Nouns Main article: Linguo Nouns Nouns (including pronouns and proper nouns) have: *eight cases: nomative (NOM), accusative (ACC), dative (DAT), genetive (GEN), ablative (ABL), instrumental (INS), comative (COM), and locative (LOC). *no inherent grammatical gender *no inherent grammatical number The nomative case is used to express the subject of a statement or to address someone or something in direct speech. The accusative case is used to express the direct object of a verb. The dative case is used to express the indirect object of the verb. The genetive case is used to express possession. The ablative case indicates movement from something or a source/cause. The instrumental case indicates an object used to perform an action. The locative case is used to express the place in or on which, or the time at which, an action is performed. Pronouns Main article: Linguo Pronouns Pronouns are usually treated the same as other types of nouns, being inflected for case and number. Additionally, they can be modified by adjectives, like any other type of noun. The dummy pronoun may be (optionally) dropped; it is normally only kept for emphasis. Adjectives Main article: Linguo Adjectives Adjectives don't agree with the noun they modify in any way. Adjectives are generally placed directly after the noun they modify. Articles & Determiners Main Article: Linguo Articles & Determiners Several articles and determiners exist in Linguo, although their use is mostly optional. A noun without an article is usually translated to other languages with an definite or indefinite article. Verbs Main article: Linguo Verbs Adverbs Main article: Linguo Adverbs Negation In Linguo, negation is done through the use of the negating particle non, and is placed after the word/phrase/clause being negated. The particle non ''expresses general negation, similar to ''not in English. examples: Mo ti amus non (I don't love you) Mo ti '''non' amus'' (You're not the one that I love) Mo '''non '''ti amus (I'm not the one that loves you) Questions (edit this) Main article: Linguo Questions In Linguo, a neutral yes-no question can be formed by adding the phrase "Somas lo set..." or "Somas set..." to the beginning of any complete sentence. In short sentences, subject verb inversion can also be used, with the word order becoming VSO in this case. Only finite verbs are inverted in this manner; infinitives retain their normal position in the sentence. For example, the sentence "No vados"'' (English: We are going) ca be made into a neutral yes-no question in any of the following ways: ''Somas lo set no vados? Somas set no vados? Vados no? All of these questions are equivalent, and all are completely neutral. Relative Clauses Relative clauses in Linguo always appear directly after the noun they modify, are always surrounded by commas, and always use the pronoun sel-''. The pronoun ''sel- ''always takes on the proper case for its position within the relative clause. Examples: Mo vidas hombri, '''selo ignadas edi'. -- note how sel-'' takes on the subject case in this sentence, as ''hombr-'' is the subject of the relative clause. Mo vidus aedi, '''seli homo ignadus'. -- note how sel-'' takes on the object case is this sentence, as ''ed-'' is the object of the relative clause. Conjunctions ''main article: Linguo Conjunctions '' Conjunctions connect clauses (''and phrases and words?) in Linguo. Provided here is a list of Linguo conjunctions, as well as an explanation of their usage. All conjunctions end in ''-t''. Word Order Linguo is fairly flexible with its word order, as all nouns are inflected for case. Nevertheless, there are some restrictions, and it normally follows a fairly standard word order. The nouns are usually put in the roughly the following order: NOM DAT ABL ACC INS, COM, LOC the genetive follows the noun phrase it modifies. adjectives and relative clauses follow the noun phrase they modify. Verbs are normally placed at the end of the sentence, with any infinitives coming before the conjugated verb. Adverbs follow the verb they modify; if there is only one verb, the adverb(s) may be placed anywhere in the clause. The verb may be omitted if the meaning of the clause is clear from context; this is normally done with somer, particularly in short relative clauses. This is also done with infinitives that are modified by a modal verb, if the infinitive is clear from context. See also Linguo Orthography Linguo Phonology Linguo Sample Text Colloquial Usage of Linguo Category:Linguo Grammar